Hours after the United States struck the B1 bridge near Karaj, Iranian state television responded with a map. Eight bridges across five countries -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Jordan -- were named as potential retaliatory targets [1]. The message required no interpretation. You hit our bridges, here are yours.

The list included the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway in Kuwait, a 36-kilometer crossing that is the country's primary northern artery and the fourth-longest road bridge on earth [2]. NPR reported that the IRGC threatened to hit major bridges in the Gulf region as retaliation for US-Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure [3]. Al Jazeera's live coverage noted that Iranian media had "already signalled potential retaliation" by publishing the list [4].

No strikes on the listed bridges have been executed. Gulf defense systems intercepted most of the April 1 salvos, and Iranian precision capability is assessed to be significantly degraded. But the list itself is the weapon. It tells five nations that their civilian infrastructure is now part of the war's calculus -- not because they attacked Iran, but because American military assets operate from their territory.

The logic mirrors Trump's own: bridges are infrastructure, and infrastructure is leverage.

-- Yosef Stern, Jerusalem